Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

MLB Approves Cubs Sale

The major league baseball owners have unanimously approved the sale of the Cubs to the Ricketts family. According to the Sporting News article, there are still a few hoops to jump through before the Ricketts officially take over day-to-day control of the team, which should hopefully happen before the end of the month.

The franchise still has to go through a 24-hour "pre-packaged bankruptcy," which the Tribune reports will take place next Monday or Tuesday. When that step is finalized, the banks financing the deal will have a "10 day cooling off period" before they have to fund the deal.

When they do take over, Ricketts and Hendry will get to have this conversation (the following brilliance is from Andy Dolan at Desipio):


Jim Hendry: Mr. Ricketts, I need to talk to you about what we’re going to do with Milton Bradley.

Tom Ricketts: Sure, I knew this was coming.

JH: We owe him $21 million the next two years, but we have to move him.  We can’t possibly try to put him back in that clubhouse with those players.  They hate him.

TR: Fine.  What are we looking at in return?

JH: Honestly, not much.  There are only a few teams that have any interest at all, and they don’t want to pay much of his salary, and they don’t want to give up any real prospects.  The best we could do would be to trade for a player with a bigger contract, like Aaron Rowand or Chris Young, and even then we’ll have to eat some of Milton’s contract.

TR: So we’re in a position where we’re going to pay a guy to not play for us?

JH: I think we have to.  It’s better to pay him to not play here, than have him here poisoning the team and not producing.

TR: So it’s your opinion, that the best solution to this is to not try to make something that’s not working, work, but instead to cut the cord and eat the money and bring in somebody better equipped to do the job?

JH: Exactly.  Sometimes it’s the best thing.

TR: For example, you have three years and $9 million left on your deal, right?

JH: Uh…yeah.

TR: So how about this?  How about I eat that nine million bucks, and pay you to not screw up our roster and our payroll anymore, and bring in somebody else to do the job, instead of having you try…again…to find somebody to bat lefthanded and not poison the clubhouse and underperform?  Because, as you read in the papers for months, I need to decide what to do with Kenney.  He thinks he’s going to stay on to handle the Wrigley Field renovations and be your boss.  But I could bring in a baseball guy like John Schuerholz or Sandy Alderson to be the president, and instead of having them be your boss, they could just do your job.

JH: Uh…I guess.

TR: Great.  Now why don’t you and Crane leak that to your little toadies, Levine and Kaplan?  I’ve got a completely fucked up payroll to worry about.


Speaking of the payroll, Arizona Phil has updated the right sidebar with the latest estimates. The Cubs are on the hook for $118M in guaranteed contracts and an estimated $18 million if they auto-renew and sign all their arbitration eligible players (which they probably won't). That puts the grand total at around $136M before any dealmaking gets under way.

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Comments

but Miggy the town drunk just dropped a 400+ foot two run bomb on the Twins. He's got a double and a HR so far. 3-0 Tigers bottom of the third.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

help...please take our .370-.400 ob% hitter off our hands...he's prone to being unhappy. we'll pay you! i still can't believe hendry/lou bought a pit bull, ignored it, let it socialize itself around the house without much guidance, and then was shocked when it bit someone. way to go.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Why do you always mention that he is a .370-.400 OBP hitter? Why don't you also mention he will miss 2 months worth of AB's a season, struggle to get 50 RBI or even over 100 hits in a single season and his slugging % was a pathetic .397. His career OPS is .821, his OPS this season is .775. So he isn't going to be much better than what he was this past season. What he did in Texas is out of proportion from what he did the rest of his career. It screams career year to never be matched again. But not many guys are hanging their hats on a 22 HR 77 RBI season as their best ever and thinking their a great hitter. Well unless your Jim Hendry and the Chicago Cubs offering 3 years 30 million for a 1 season 70 RBI hitter at age 31.

[ ]

In reply to by MikeC

well, the main point is the cubs are giving away a .370+ ob% guy...paying him to go away...because they bought a dog and decided to tie it up in the yard. and we've gone over the "texas thing" before...i expect 30+doubles, 15-25 HR production out of him...it wouldn't be even mildly shocking to see milton hit 25 homers. i don't...and never have...expected him to be some ungodly power hitter. he does have gap+ power, though. the cubs are about to pay a team to take a .370+ ob% who has more power potential than fuku away for things unrelated to what he does on the field. great stuff.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Can you imagine? Montreal, Cleveland, Los Angeles(AL), Los Angeles (NL), Oakland, San Diego, Texas, and now the Cubs... getting rid of this guy. If they could just uncover the great and secret stat "OBP" they would realize his true value. Alas! how naive are these GMs? Maybe Theo Epstein would take Milton Bradley since he loves OBP so much? Something tells me, though, Milton Bradley doesn't suit up as a Red Sox next year.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

You are a broken record. I didn't say anything about Bradley's attitude (though, of course, JD Drew has often been criticized for many of the same things that Bradley gets criticized for). I was simply responding to the silly, "$10M for 15 HR" comment. But, FWIW, I think that if Bradley was better in April and May, then yea, his attitude wouldn't have mattered.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

More than you? go get your magnifying glass to find any more rounding errors or something... Awesome... when you have nothing of substance to day, resort to personal attacks. Are you MikeC/Real Neal now? Once again - did you even listen to the Epstein piece?

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

say what? Dave may argue a point strongly, but there's not of personal attacks that come from him...

I would say Real Neal was the King of personal attacks, but he's backed off that significantly in recent months unless provoked.

As always, I'm the King of Idiots.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

Huh? Please point out these alleged personal attacks. I am not saying that I have never made any, but I try very hard to avoid them, and I don't think that you will be able to find many of them.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

finally had a chance to listen to it...

thanks for the link.

"based on his skillset, he'll always have underwhelming RBI totals and I couldn't care less. When you're putting together a winning team, that honestly doesn't matter. When you have a player that takes a ton of walks, who doesn't put the ball in play at an above average rate and is a certain type of hitter, he's not gonna drive in a lot of runs."

ah, music to my ears...

He then goes into JD scoring a ton of runs on a rate basis...quick look and he scores a run around 14-17% per plate appearance, 16% for his career. Bradley scored at just 12.9% this year, around 15% the few years prior, but just 13.23% for his career. I don't know what the league average is, Pujols scored at a 17.7% rate per plate appearance, Pedroia at 16.1%, Ryan Howard scored at a 14.9% rate, Soriano at 12.2%

Runs scored is of course a function of getting on-base, baserunning,  as well as the hitters behind you..and the HR's you hit...

Bradley sort of bounced around the order this year, he had Lee an Ramirez behind him briefly in April/May and part of June, then a good stretch of Fontenot, Soto and Soriano, then back to Lee and Ramirez in August.

Back to Theo, GM of 2 World Series champion teams...

"he does the single most important thing you can do in baseball as an offensive player, that's not make outs.......and he's a real good baserunner."

(slight paraphrasing) "you can talk about RBI's if you want, we ignore them in the front office, and we built a pretty good offense, if you want to talk about RBI's, talk about them as a percentage of opportunities. It's just simply not something we use to evaluate offensive players."

 

hammels supposedly getting the game 3 start over marquis for COL for those keeping track...delarosa out due to a groin thing

The sale is finally (99%) over, thank the gods. I'd like to have the cash Ricketts will spend just to furnish his spiffy new office at Wrigley. I see a solid gold urinal and a bust of Marla Collins.

with a 2-run HR, 4-3 Twins in the 7th...fun stuff.

"Johnson or Fuld (why not both?)...Gordy thinks they'll resign Reed if he doesn't get too expensive Fox, Fontenot likely on the block (think we can get Lincecum for them?) Gordy thinks they can unload Bradley and not have to eat 80% or more of his contract (I guess 75% is okay)" Fuld. Johnson is gonna want too much. Or, rather, Hendry will OFFER him TOO much. They are the same guy. Reed can hit a little better. Fuld is younger, faster, with a better arm. Also, can Hendry pay some of the Bradley salary loss?

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I agree on the Fuld and Hendry remarks, though Fuld has also been a bit more injury prone throughout his career. I was going to say it seems like Hendry is the only one he doesn't hold responsible for the sub-par season, but it looks like Lou is getting off pretty easy as well.

don't teams usually have 5 OF'ers? Why can't we have both? Fox and Hoff aren't going to be around imo, Lou barely used them in the outfield, I don't think he's going to have en epiphany about it this offseason, especially with there supposed stress on speed. Reed's a better platoon partner for Fukudome than Fuld and Fuld can be their speed guy off the bench that they want and not too bad a fill-in when Soriano, Fuku or new RFer (or CFer if they move Fuku over). Now if they sign Figgins, who can play all 3 OF spots if needed, I could see them going with just one extra OF'er. Speaking of deals, heard Kelly Johnson could be on the block? Any interest? Always liked him, but he's also been rather disappointing the last 2 years...has had some knee problems.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

always important to check the option years here...

Fuld - 1, Hoff - 1, Fox - 0

I'll be amazed if Fox isn't traded this offseason.

Gorzelanny is also out of options which should make that 5th starter race interesting

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I think Fuld and Fox should constitute OFer's #4 and 5 No arbitration to Reed Johnson. Why overpay for him when he is nothing close to a difference maker? Grabow asking for 3 years makes me think he will turn down arbitration. So offer it to him. Take the picks and build up the system.

[ ]

In reply to by Dr. aaron b

sure, we all may think Fox should be one of the bench guys, but Lou played Taguchi, Scales, Fuld, Colvin all ahead of him. And he's got no options left....

Your team would have to be run by someone exceptionally stupid to sign John Grabow and cost a first round draft pick. Didn't almost all the LOOGIES last year last until March and end up on one year deals?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

If the dude couldn't get ABs at third base instead of Miles and Fontenot, it's utterly hopeless. Let's trade him for a non-prospect, then figure out how to get Lou his "big RBI bat." Puke.

from the Orlando Cabrera game to the Inge game...

WOW! Twins!!! I had the pleasure of seeing the Twins pound the Cubs twice this summer. Once with CUBSTER. There cannot be two different organizations. Incredible. EDIT: "pleasure" in a facetious way. The Twins also beat the Cubbies two of three their last trip to the Dome. Not much of a surprise there.

Twins now 1-1 in game #163, also averaging 163 games over the last two years from the redundant dept of redundancy

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.